Fundamental defense wins over cheating defense every time. As Shane was actually gifted and knowledgeable in using techniques of actual allowable defense his is better. What Bowen did was simply allowed and not actual defensive techniques that should be taught.
i have seen far too many dirty youtube videos of the way Bowen plays defense. He has a way of getting into opponents heads which adds to his defensive prowess. As for pure skill, you got make what you can't see. Batter ftw.
If Tayshuan and Bowen gave up 27ppg on 46% shooting to kobe, the spurs wwould never beat La and neither would Detroit. The fact that posey,allen,and pierce didn't have a defensive stopper and kobe was shut down, what does that tell you? This poll makes 0 sense with people talking about bowen being dirty. I don't care as long as he shuts his man down and the team wins who the eff cares!!!!!
I hope that you don't really believe that. Bowen was a great fundamental defender. The "dirty" antics, whether intentional or not, were all just extra ways to get under the opponent's skin. Anybody that's ever played organized basketball can verify how annoying a defensive stopper assigned to you is. When somebody is already under your skin with the strong defensive play, everything else just gets magnified all the more.
For real. He gets kobe so frustrated, kobe slap manu, lol. The guy basically invades your space. He doesn't give you a lot of room to come down on jumpers, he pulls,tugs, and like I said before, he would never let kobe drop 40 and not commit a foul. If almost impossible to play as physical and be as disruptive without fouling. If people go look at the tape and see how much space and how many shots shane conceeds to kobe then watch bowen, its not even close.
here are kobe's stats v. shane's teams: 01-02: 29.5ppg, 54% fg (memphis) - with the infamous 56 pts in 3 quarters 02-03: 29.8ppg, 52% fg 03-04: 26.7ppg, 41% fg 04-05: 13.3ppg, 23.2% fg 05-06: 29.0ppg, 40% fg 06-07: 37.3ppg, 39%fg (houston) 07-08: 33.0ppg, 40% fg 08-08: 25.8ppg, 44% fg bowen v. kobe (ima start w/ 01-02 b/c he got big minutes w/ spurs then) 01-02: 26.5ppg, 46%fg 02-03: 31.5ppg, 38%fg 03-04: 25.8ppg, 42%fg 04-05: 20.0ppg, 33%fg 05-06: 30.0ppg, 38%fg 06-07: 33.0ppg, 55% fg 07-08: 24.3ppg, 44% fg it's obvious both of these guys CANNOT guard kobe one-on-one. nobody can. they're great defenders no doubt, but they benefit from having a defensive big man behind them (duncan/yao) and coaches who emphasize defense (JVG/pop/adelman has embraced JVG's defensive philosophy). that's all that really is. to stop a great scorer like kobe or any great scorer, it's more of the team's defensive greatness, rather than the individual defender. the worst i've seen kobe play was in the finals v. the pistons & celtics. unsurprisingly, both of those teams had THE BEST defensive TEAM that year. team defense is the key. i'm sure if kobe plays shane or bruce 1-on-1, he scores on them 9 out of 10 possessions.
when he could only focus on defense, he was better. he made kobe look like a damn fool in the finals. and he slowed down mcgrady in a series where he averaged 35+ v. the pistons before he entered. with more minutes, prince also focused more on offense. all battier focuses on is defense, all day everyday.
Bowen always just ran his opponent into Tim Duncan to get help and a block on the shot. That's pretty much it.
I'll take Bowen for his versatility. I believed Bowen was better than Shane after watching them play Utah in the playoffs. Deron Williams destroyed our team game after game and the coaches never asked Shane to guard him. I believe this is because the coaches knew Shane couldn't do it. When the Spurs played Deron Williams, Williams destroyed Tony Parker and had his way until the 4th quarter, then they put Bowen on him and that was the end for Williams. I've seen Bowen guard Williams, CP3, Billups, and Kidd down the stretch of key playoff games, swinging those games in favor of the Spurs. Bowen's ability to guard point guards was key to the Spur's championships because Tony Parker is actually overmatched defensively against those guys and they were able to hide him. Looking at the responses here, most people are saying that Bowen is not as good a defender as Shane because he plays dirty. Personally I don't care if a guy plays 'dirty' or not. It doesn't matter what tactics a player uses as long as he isn't whistled for the foul. Kobe kept swinging his elbow into people's face until the league made him stop, Bowen kept doing his little trick with his foot until the league told him to stop. I really wish Shane would get a little dirtiness in his defense.
if that was all the bowen did, then he did a good job. it isn't easy to control a great offensive player enough to send them into a guy they don't want to meet. but your statement makes me think you didn't watch much bowen since he joined the spurs. dude moved his feet well, stayed between his man and the basket, kept his hands up, pressured passes and shots. that was his job, and it was his to keep until his feet slowed down. i like battier too. he's got more young in him. he should get just a little meaner though.
I thought Shane should have been traded 2 years ago... does that mean I'm a Batman lover? Bruce Bowen was a dirty defender and that's why the title should go to Shane, he'll defend you the right way not sloppy and foul everytime. Plus what would be Bruce Bowen's prime to be exact wasn't he already 30 when they first won the ship?
Paul Pierce offense + defense + Tim Thibodeau scheme was the way to beat Kobe. Made Kobe have to work extra hard work on both ends of the floor, thats how you beat him. Bowen is the more in-the-face and peskier with his D. When I think of "lock up", I think Bowen. I've give him the slight nod I think Tayshaun's D is equally as overrated as Battier's. Battier gets more combined blocks+steals than Tayshaun and Bowen so I dont see Battier conceding on his D more than them...but my disdain for the weakest offensive player on my team makes me hold grudges against fans who rate him high on likability. So while Tayshaun is overrated, Battier and his ilk need to die.
I consider his prime to be 2003-2007, somewhere around there. Here are some guys Bowen guarded during clutch moments in the playoffs: Nash, Kidd, Billups, D. Williams, Dirk, Lebron, and Kobe. Shane didn't play all those guys in the playoffs, but he did get Kobe, Dirk, and D. Will, he was the defender of choice for Kobe, but not for Dirk or D. Will: our coaching staff chose Tmac for Dirk and Rafer for D. Will. This is not a knock at our coaching staff, they know better than anyone what a player is capable of. Bowen does not play 'sloppy and foul everytime', he is extremely effective because he does what he does and is not called for the foul.
I give the nod to Bowen, albeit slightly, simply because he has proved his valuable defense in clutch playoff games and toward multiple championships. Battier can certainly end up being that, but he has to prove it consistently deep in the playoffs for him to overtake Bowen.
